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The role of apparent diffusion coefficient values in characterization of solid focal liver lesions: a prospective and comparative clinical study

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Abstract

We evaluated and compared the diagnostic accuracy (DA) of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values with that of lesion-to-liver ADC ratios in the characterization of solid focal liver lesions (FLLs). This prospective study was approved by the Institutional Human Ethics Board, after waiving written informed consent. Diffusion-weighted imaging and other routine magnetic resonance imaging were performed on 142 consecutive patients with suspected liver disease. The mean ADC values and lesion-to-liver ADC ratios were compared between benign and malignant solid FLLs. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed. The study participants included 46 patients (28 men, 18 women; mean age, 52.5 years) with 57 solid FLLs (32 malignant and 25 benign FLLs). The mean ADC values and ADC ratios of benign solid FLLs were significantly higher than those of malignant lesions (P<0.01). The difference between the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the ADC values (0.699) and ADC ratios (0.752) was not significant. Our study suggests that the DA of the ADC ratio is not significantly higher than that of ADC in characterizing solid FLLs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express our enormous appreciation and gratitude to all participants. This study was supported by Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (D101100050010056), and National Key Technology R&D Program (2015BAI13B09).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China

    Dawei Yang, Jie Zhang, Dan Han, Erhu Jin & Zhenghan Yang

  2. National Clinical Research Center for Digestive Diseases, Beijing, 100050, China

    Dawei Yang, Jie Zhang, Dan Han, Erhu Jin & Zhenghan Yang

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  1. Dawei Yang
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  2. Jie Zhang
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  3. Dan Han
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  4. Erhu Jin
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  5. Zhenghan Yang
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Correspondence to Zhenghan Yang.

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Yang, D., Zhang, J., Han, D. et al. The role of apparent diffusion coefficient values in characterization of solid focal liver lesions: a prospective and comparative clinical study. Sci. China Life Sci. 60, 16–22 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-016-0387-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-016-0387-4

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